A majority of the justices have generally shown sympathy for business complaints about the burdens of consumer and employee litigation. On the other hand, the Tenth Circuit’s strikingly employer-friendly standard for religious-bias suits stands in tension with rulings of other lower courts. In this too-close-to-call environment, the denominationally diverse friend-of-the-court briefs could very well sway justices to vote against Abercrombie & Fitch.

That’s why the most important test of 2016 may be the Thomas Jefferson Primary —the race to see which candidates offer a clear, coherent vision of religious liberty when the very idea is contested in American politics.